As the new coalition government plans its own finance review into local government, managers are dusting off the 2007 report by Sir Michael Lyons. Heather Jameson refreshes our memories
As the new coalition government promised to go back to the drawing board and carry out a further review of local government finance, the call from the sector was to go back to the Lyons review.
Published in March 2007, the review is as relevant today as it was then, and by Sir Michael Lyons's own admission, was designed to cross political boundaries to give a blueprint for finance in the immediate and long-term future, regardless of the political party in power.
In other words, it is a review which could work as well for the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government as it might have for the Labour Party which commissioned it, and there are plenty of potential options and get-out clauses for those opposed to following their political predecessors.
Despite the fact that large chunks of the report were dismissed by the government of the time almost immediately after its publication, much of the more cultural side of the report has become embedded in the sector.
As local government officials reach up on to their dusty shelves for their long-forgotten copies of the hefty tome to see what could perhaps be on the agenda in the next finance review, here, The MJ has outlined a few of the key findings – but the report contains far more concepts than can be condensed into these two pages...
The function of local government After the terms of reference were expanded for the Lyons review in September 2005, real consideration was given to the role of local government and how it would operate in the future.
Sir Michael recognised four key challenges for local government in the future:
